Orchard, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Orchard, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Orchard lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orchard — the short answer
Orchard, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 257 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 257 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Fort Bend County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Orchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orchard's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orchard
Each reading below is measured for Orchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOrchard runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Fort Bend County, the closest normal to Orchard) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOrchard sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Orchard is in
Orchard sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Orchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fort Bend County.
What Grows in Orchard
Plants matched to Orchard's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Orchard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Orchard
Survey cells within 31 miles of Orchard checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 514 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNNYS COUNTRY FOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JY-65-25-203Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- JY-65-17-807Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- WALLIS CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- SIMONTON DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- KING CONST MATLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- COUNTRY SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- WARREN PETROLEUM CO MOORES ORCHARD PLABrownfields · 5.4 mi
- BIG LITTLE SCOTTYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- D&M ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- TXDOT FORT BEND AREA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orchard's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Orchard.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Orchard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orchard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orchard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orchard — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Orchard
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orchard average
Your land is one point inside Orchard
Everything above resolves to Orchard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 257 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fort Bend County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Orchard Average
Orchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Orchard
- ●One soil character for all of Orchard
- ●Frost dates read at Orchard's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orchard's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orchard, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orchard average
How we know this about Orchard
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fort Bend County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Orchard
When does frost risk typically end in Orchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard typically lands around Jan 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 17.
When is the first frost in Orchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orchard sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 28, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orchard?
The federal record around Orchard is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Orchard?
From about Nov 12 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orchard's scale — its 9a band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orchard's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Orchard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Orchard's own scale — the 257 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orchard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orchard's boundary and the 257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Orchard's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Orchard checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Orchard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fort Bend County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orchard's 257 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fort Bend County
- The candidate plant list — Texas's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Texas
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fort Bend County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Fort Bend County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orchard's 257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 257 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Orchard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasOrchard sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides